Russia: Syria to remove all chemical weapons this month

February 4, 2014 / 5:49 AM
/ CBS/Reuters

MOSCOW -- Syria plans to send a
large shipment of toxic agents out of the country this month and can complete
the removal process by March 1, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov
was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

“Literally yesterday the Syrians
announced that the removal of a large shipment of chemical substances is
planned in February. They are ready to complete this process by March 1,” state-run
Russia news agency RIA quoted Gatilov as saying.

The operation to dispose of
Syria's chemical stockpile under a deal brokered by Russia and the United
States is far behind schedule and a deadline for sending all toxic agents out
of Syria this week will be missed.

U.S. officials accused Damascus
of dragging its feet, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry asked Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last Friday to put pressure on Assad's government
to accelerate the operation.

CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan
reported that so far, only 4 percent of the priority 1 chemicals, which include
deadly agents like sarin gas, declared by Syria have been removed, according to
U.S. government estimates.

U.S. officials said the Assad regime had not
even begun to transport the remaining Priority 1 chemicals to the designated
Mediterranean port at Latakia for collection.

U.S. Ambassador Robert Mikulak also said that
Syria had not fully destroyed
its chemical weapons production facilities as required, and claimed by the
regime. Brennan said U.S. officials believe many of the measures that the
Syrians have taken are actually readily reversible and do not meet
requirements.

“As for timing, in principle everything is going OK,”
Ryabkov was quoted as saying. “There really are difficulties linked to the need
to provide security for this operation.”

Michael Luhan, spokesman for the
international organization tasked with overseeing the removal and destruction
of Syria's toxic chemical stockpile, told CBS News on Tuesday that he could not
confirm the March 1 deadline given by Russia.

The spokesman for the Organization for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said the group's Executive Council
concluded last week that the Syrians need to submit a revised timetable for the
process.

He said the OPCW would vet that timetable and
assess its feasibility -- a process which had not been completed on Tuesday.
Luhan told CBS News it was possible the Syrians had submitted the March 1 date
for consideration, but stressed the new timetable had not yet been adopted by
the OPCW.